Safety-guard for railways



(No Model.)

' PI PI SAFETY GUARD FOR RAILWAYS.

Patented Oct. 17, 1882.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PHILONZO F. GIVEN, OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IOVA.

SAFETY-GUARD FO R RAI LWAYS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 265,958, dated October 17, 1882,

Application filed November 15, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, PHILONZO F. GIVEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at (ledar Rapids, in the county ofLinn and State oflowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Guards for Railways and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it-appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention has for its object to furnish an improved guard for railway frogs and.

main rail, the said cushion being made thinnest along its middle longitudinal line equidistant from the said rails, and then gradually thickened on both its upper and under faces outwardly from said middle line to the points where it comes in contact with the outer V edges of the heads and with the upper faces of Fig. 2 shows a frog and guard-rail.

the feet or bases of said rails. From these points of contact it is extended to and is firmly abutted against the adjacent vertical faces of the rails. It is thus given a firm seat, from which it cannot be easily displaced, and at the same time possesses an elasticity by which it adapts itself to the pressure of and will not be subjected to great wear or liability to injury from the passing car-wheels.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a portion of a railway-track provided with a guard-rail. Fig. 3 shows a triangular-shaped filling-piece, and Fig. 4 is a slightly-enlarged view, showing part of a filling-piece to be placed between a guard-rail and the main rail. Fig. 5 shows a cross-section of two rails having a filling-piece between them, and Fig. 6 shows a switch having the filling-pieces between the ends of the fixed rails.

The filling-piece which I employ is construct- 'the flange of the passing wheel.

ed with longitudinal grooves on its upper and under sides for the purpose of giving it greater flexibility, so that it will yield readily when pressed by the flange of a passing car-wheel. The flanges on the wheel of different cars'are not made of a uniform width from the tread ot' the wheel outward. The result of this is that the filling-piece will be pressed hard by one wheel, while it will receive little or no pressnrcfrom another. The ordinary safetypieces employed are unyielding, and are soon broken and rendered useless by the action of the wider flanges on the car-wheels.

My device is made thinner at its central portions, and is gradually made thicker as it exi will, bend downward at its central portions along the line of the channels or grooves, whenever it is pressed at a point near the rail by As soon as the pressure is removed the piece springs back to its first position, and has sulfered no injury by the blow given by the flange of the wheel.

The filling-piece gives good satisfaction when constructed with a single channel formed in its top surface. It gives far better satisfaction when provided with an additional channel formed in its under surface and immediately opposite the channel in the upper surface.

In the drawings the construction of my device is shown clearly in Figs. 4 and 5. a is a filling-piece, which is made concave in its upper and under faces, havingformed in the-latter the longitudinal channels a, a The piece a fits snugly between the sides of the rails and between the bases and tops of the latter, as shown clearlyin Fig. 5. It is seated firmly on the bases and fits snugly to the under side of the head or top part of the rails b. Each filling piece is also provided with longitudinal lips or flanges a which project upward, and are arranged to lie snugly against the sides of the rails and fill up the small space between the body of the filling-piece and the curved under faces of said rails. These lips are so single switch-rail.

. ecmese of the rails, and they fill up the entire space below this point of contact, and form, with the sides of the rails. vertical walls from the said point of contact downward to the body of the said filling-piece. These longitudinal lips prevent the foot of a workman from being caught and held fast between the two adjacent rails. If the foot be pushed down between the rails and into the body of the fillingpiece, the elastic lips or flanges will be outside of the sole of the shoe and the latter can easily be drawn out. In ordinary devices of this kind the small space betweeuthe rail and body of the filling-piece is left open and the soles of the shoe will catch under the head of the rail. In my device I have provided against all such accidents, and have also provided a device so constructed that it will not soon be rendered worthless by the blows of passing wheels.

In Figs. 1 and 2 I have shown the fillingpiece applied to guard-rails. In Figs. 2 and 3 I have shown a triangular piece adapted to the meeting-rails composing a frog, and in Fig. 6 I show filling-pieces placed between the ends of several tracks arranged to connect with a The filling-piece may be secured by bolts passed through them and the two adjacent rails, as shown in Fig. 6, or by spikes driven through them into the tie'below. It will be seen that these filling-pieces, being made alike on their upper and under sides, may be reversed and adapted to different localities. The piece a, having wide end and placed between rails, as shown in Fig. 2, may be turned end for end and inverted, and the wider end will fit between the opposite end of the guard-rail c and the rail 1), so the same piece a will be adapted for the space be tween guard-rail c and rail 1), so the piece d, Fig. 1, will fit into a frog on either side of the track.

The pieces 0 c, Fig. 6, may be used interchangeably.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

The combination, with the track-rails and the guard-rails in a railway frog or switch, of a reversible elastic cushion having its upper and under faces alike and made with longitudinal central grooves or channels extended from end to end, and having its ends fitted snugly against the vertical faces of the adjacent rails and against the under face of the head of the rail and rested on the upper face of the foot of the rail, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature,

in presence of two witnesses, on this llth day of November, 1881.

PHILONZO F. GIVEN. Witnesses:

J. 1t. KINNEY, S. C. BEVER. 

